Vineyard Haven – Consenses Walks

PrairiePhotograph by Elizabeth Cecil

Horizontal lines are commonplace on the Island…the sand meets the ocean, the ocean meets the sky. I was taking pictures and pulled into Eastville Beach. Right away I noticed these barren branches sort of breaking up the view. This scene had that same evenness that I was so accustomed to but was then interrupted by these layered elements, a barrier of sorts. In this particular series of work, I was really seeking that sense of space and openness which can sometimes be difficult to find living on an island. In one sense, this image represents the feeling of vastness that being surrounded by the ocean can bring while at the same time recognizing the boundaries that it can create.

Artist

Elizabeth Cecil Elizabeth Cecil is a fine art and editorial photographer based on Martha’s Vineyard. Elizabeth specializes in food, travel and agricultural photography while always pursuing personal bodies of work. She contributes to multiple publications on the island and is the founding and current Photo Editor for Edible Vineyard (2010-present). Elizabeth fell in love with photography chasing trains with her dad in Milwaukee. She made her first pictures with a blue Fisher Price and a roll of 110 film and the excitement of making images has stayed with her ever since.

Location

Steamship Authority Planter46 Union St, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, USA Open in Google Maps › Open in Apple Maps ›

What do you See?

WaitingSong by James Taylor

I was taken with the quiet expectancy of the early spring saplings waking up into a new cycle of life in this Photograph [from stop 1] . In the image, things seemed to be thawing from a completely solid state and I could imagine these brave little saplings feeling the life force slowly, tenderly, and patiently awakening in them. They’re at the beginning of a life cycle, which will take them through the riot of summer and close them down slowly in preparation for the fall and winter before freezing them still again. The guitar piece I wrote wakes up slowly. It starts out of time. It states its major theme, which is the saplings beginning to wake up and get their sap running again and their buds out. It repeats a few times and then it finds its rhythm and life.

Artist

James Taylor James Taylor’s music embodies the art of songwriting in its most personal and universal form. His career spans four decades with close to 100 million albums sold and has earned multiple Grammy Awards. Taylor was inducted into both the Rock & Roll and the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame. Recently he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Obama and the distinguished Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.

Location

Island Music58 Main St, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, USA Open in Google Maps › Open in Apple Maps ›

What do you Hear?

SquibnocketPainting by Allen Whiting

The music I interpreted [from stop 2] sounded like a shy introduction. Listening to it, I felt like I was on a five-note ride descending down a gentle right-hand curve. The music was like an outstretched hand. I kept thinking about the north shore of my home. It too curves away to the right, at least where the points of land meet the sea. The line in the painting that guides the eye through the painting is my translation of the right-hand curving melody line.

Artist

Allen Whiting Allen Whiting, born in 1946 on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, grew up in the landscape he loves to paint. He has a degree in studio painting from Windham College in Vermont. Allen lives and works on the West Tisbury sheep farm that has been in his family for generations. His work is displayed in the Davis House Gallery and in many private and public collections around the world.

Location

Owen Park "William Barry Owen" park and recreation areaPublic beach, 19 Owen Park Way, Vineyard Haven, MA 02568, USA Open in Google Maps › Open in Apple Maps ›

What do you See?

LifeDance by Patrick Corbin

The first word that came to me from the song I interpreted [from stop 2] was LIFE. I imagined life from beginning to end and back to beginning. I immediately had an image of hands developing through the cycle of life including all different races. Listening to the music, emotionally I felt complete. I was at first contemplative then melancholic and then serene. The most beautiful pair of hands for me were the ones beginning & closing the video. They belong to a man named Burt who Ed (Filmmaker) and I met at “The Sage Room” (the gay & lesbian community center in the West Village). Burt was very reluctant to participate in the dance but Ed opened him up and made him feel loved and safe and said “Of course you want to be a part of this.” For me, Burt’s hands captured the beauty of the life cycle in my image.

Artist

Patrick Corbin Patrick Corbin was born in Potomac, Maryland. Ballet became a part of Patrick’s life in the late 70’s when he started studying with Bernard Spriggs, and The Washington School of Ballet. After working with several companies Patrick joined the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1989, and became one of its most celebrated members, dancing there until 2005. From there, he founded his own company, CorbinDances, in 2005 and creates and stages his work as well as the work of Paul Taylor. Patrick teaches modern dance and ballet and has developed FUNdaMENTALS, a movement program for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Learn More

Location

Lennox & Harvey53b Main Street, Vineyard Haven, MA, USA Open in Google Maps › Open in Apple Maps ›

What do you See?

Stop 5Poem by Honor Moore

This Dance I interpreted [from stop 4] elicited a tenderness in me. It was about caregiving and nurturance. About spirituality, playfulness, and fundamentally about relationships, but not in an inaccessible romanticized way. In a raw, real way, warts and all. It reminded me of dragonflies. In their quest for perpetuity, they have found a way to court and mate in the air. With amazing elegance, they complement each other’s movements. Within seconds the piece in my head was done. The building of this has taken me longer than anything else I have ever built.

Artist

Honor Moore The Bishop’s Daughter, Honor Moore’s 2008 memoir, was published in paperback in May 2009 along with a reissue of her 1996 biography, The White Blackbird, A Life of the Painter Margarett Sargent by Her Granddaughter. The Bishop’s Daughter was named an Editor’s Choice by the New York Times, a “Favorite Book of 2008” by the Los Angeles Times and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. In 2009 Library of America published Poems from the Women’s Movement, an anthology edited by Honor Moore, and in 2010 the Feminist Press published Honor’s translation of Taslima Nasrin’s Revenge. She is the author of three collections of poems: Red Shoes, Darling, and Memoir, and her play Mourning Pictures, was produced on Broadway and published in The New Women’s Theatre: Ten Plays by Contemporary American Women, which she edited. Moore has received awards in poetry and playwriting from the National Endowment for the Arts, The New York State Council for the Arts and the Connecticut Commission for the Arts and in 2004 was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in non-fiction. In addition, she is the editor of Amy Lowell: Selected Poems for the Library of America and co-editor of The Stray Dog Cabaret, A Book of Russian Poems translated by Paul Schmidt. She is on the faculty of the graduate writing program at The New School. From 2005 to 2007, she was an off-Broadway theater critic for The New York Times.

Location

The Seven SistersThe Seven Sisters Martha's Vineyard, Main Street, Vineyard Haven, MA, USA Open in Google Maps › Open in Apple Maps ›

What do you See?

Take a Walk Around Vineyard Haven